Murder investigation launched after human remains at Terowie house identified

Updated
Fri 6 Dec 2013, 1:07 PM AEDT

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Martin Meffert is thought to have been murdered

Human remains found at a house in regional South Australia have now been identified and the death is being treated as murder.

The remains found at Terowie, south-east of Peterborough, back in October have been identified as those of a former town resident, Martin Craig Meffert.

The 23-year-old man was last seen when he got on a bus to travel from Adelaide to Terowie in 2005.

Police say the owner of the house, the victim's cousin Christopher Scott, 25, had been charged with failing to report a death.

Police said they had up to three suspects for the murder, which had been particularly violent.

The officer in charge of the Major Crime Investigation Branch, Superintendent Des Bray, said there were strange aspects to Mr Meffert's death.

"We believe that he was buried then later dug up and stored in the Terowrie property's shed until being moved to the house," he said.

"This is a bizarre sequence of events in itself. The man currently charged in connection with the bones has failed to provide police with any explanation as to how he came into possession of the bones.

"We have conducted an extensive search of the home and the yard of the property but have not as yet turned up any additional evidence. We hope that now the identity has been made public, it may jog people's memories and they will come forward with valuable information."

Superintendent Bray said a wider search had been made since the remains were discovered in a bag.

"We've been back to Terowie, searched the rear yard of another premises and used an excavator to help uncover a section of the yard hoping to uncover the remaining bones, but unfortunately that was unsuccessful," he said.